Deceit
by Themis56
Summary: Lookit! A FFVI fic about...General Leo!


Deceit

by Themis56

Themis56@aol.com

_This fic describes that 'fake happy-ending' scene in Final Fantasy VI where Kefka barges in and basically blows the Espers all the way to Hades and back_. _That pretty much explains it. However, I have added a single little twist to the mix..._

Enjoy--I hope!

Themis56

General Leo Christophe paced rapidly up and down the length of the small inn in Thamasa, his knuckles turning white as he clenched his hands together behind his back in a vice-like grip.

"Leo, relax!" a smooth, feminine voice spoke, disrupting his fevered thoughts for a moment, causing him to stop in mid-stride.

"Come again...?" Leo murmured, looking at the stunningly beautiful, slender woman sitting at the nearby table--his partner, his fellow General of the Empire, Celes Chere.

A slight smile broke over the smooth, pallid skin of Celes's face; her gray eyes, the same color of water just before it turned into ice, gave some semblance of a bright flicker.

"Leo, sit down. Pacing around and worrying isn't going to do any good. Now, come. The best thing we can do is plan our next strategy," Celes gestured to the chair sitting across from her. Leo couldn't help but smile as he complied and seated himself; Celes, for as long as he had known her, always had been the soul of practicality. When all others were hopelessly confused or out of sorts, there she had always been, never losing her cool or allowing emotions to overwhelm her. Not even he, a few years older and with more training, was quite as composed as she.

"We've looked up and down this wretched island, and still not one sign of an Esper," Leo grumbled, reaching over and pouring himself a glass of water. When the drink was poured, he didn't take a single sip; he simply stared down into its glassy depths, trying to think.

"Well, that only means we have to look harder," Celes advised, making Leo's bowed head jerk up slightly.

"You make it sound as if it were an easy task," Leo returned with a tight smile. "But I'm simply at a loss at what to do. Maybe we should start looking again...but what if Terra and the others have had better luck than we? We may have been looking in the wrong places, but perhaps..."

"Leo," Celes interrupted, "we can't just sit around here and do nothing. Yes, maybe Locke and Terra have located the Espers, but we can't be sure. I think we had better go off and look for ourselves. Besides, what could be the worst that can happen? The Espers would just have to wait a little while until we returned, that's all. Better safe than sorry."

"That's a bit odd, coming from you," Leo couldn't resist the urge to tease her, just slightly; Celes had always been willing to take risks--well, at least calculated ones--and here she was, choosing the more secure path. It piqued Leo's sense of humor.

"Oh, shut up," Celes retorted, a slight smile once again resurfacing on her face, her icy-gray eyes shimmering slightly as she rose from her seat; normally, Celes did not appreciate being teased, but she allowed Leo a bit more license with her than a good majority of people. They had gone to the Imperial Academy together, trained together, served as Generals together, and that had given way to something that almost was true friendship. Unfortunately, Imperial etiquette mandated that the Generals never could be close; in fact, they were on the verge of breaking the mold simply by treating each other with something a tad more meaningful than cold respect.

Still, as Leo got up from his chair, he realized that, for a second, Celes's eyes had held a sad, hurt expression; a sudden wave of guilt crashed over him. Although he had merely meant it as a mild jest, he knew than he had hit a sore chord with her; no doubt his remark must have triggered thousands of painful memories in her mind.

"Celes, I apologize for that," he murmured, shaking his head slightly; being a mere warrior--albeit a brilliant, skilled one--he could not fathom what his comrade-in-arms had gone through, being artificially infused with magic as she was.

Even as he let his heart ache for Celes, a small measure of relief flooded through him. Thank God he wasn't a magic user! The gift was overrated in his opinion. Besides, it gave the mage a great advantage over people who had no mystical powers in their fingers, and if there was one thing Leo despised more than anything else, it was not fighting on equal terms.

"No need to apologize, General," Celes responded lightly, opening the inn door for him, "but I thank you, anyway. Now, where shall we start searching next?"

"We-ell...how about that mountain range, to the east of here?" Leo proposed, squinting his eyes in thought.

"From what the townspeople say, that's where Locke and Terra were headed," Celes pointed out.

"Yes, but there are many chasms and caves around that area; the others can't possibly search through all of them. We've got just as good a chance as they do. Probably even better, since we have more men," Leo observed, eyeing the small battalion of Imperial troopers loitering around the inn.

"All right. Can't see what harm it could do," Celes acquiesced, the sweet reason of the argument appealing to her.

Leo nodded in satisfaction, and turned to go out Thamasma's front gates, shouting out the orders for the men to depart; before he could take a step, however, Celes detained him.

"Halt!" she shouted to the troopers. She then turned to Leo.

"Look there," she pointed out, gesturing to a small disturbance over off to the south side of the village. "It looks like...like..." she squinted her eyes to get a better view of the forms of the newcomers. Suddenly, the icy gray eyes flew wide open for one split second, and a slightly blaze flared up for the briefest moment. Without even continuing, Celes hurried off, her face as passive and neutral as usual, but her step lively and hurried.

Leo, slightly amused and confused by his comrade's unnatural behavior, followed her course of retreat to the very center of the town. There he saw such a sight that he nearly stopped dead in his tracks.

There, standing near the gargantuan pine that had grown right smack in the center of the town, were people he had recently begun to call his friends: Locke Cole, the thief--Leo never called him that to his face, of course, but he was not one for semantics either--and Terra Branford, the former Imperial trooper turned Returner.

Whenever he saw Terra, Leo's heart always nearly rent itself in two; the young woman's beauty was truly heartbreaking, with her haunted, sad emerald eyes and delicate pale face. Kefka--Leo never blamed the Emperor for the girl's lot--had treated the poor girl with such vile disregard for emotion or human decency that Leo could barely bring himself to look at her. He had not lifted a hand to save her from her fate of bondage; he did not deserve to even speak to her.

Yet, he had spoken with her, and he looked at her; there was such a strong impulse to do so that he could not resist. Besides, he noted with a small flicker of hope, she had never been anything but kind to him. She had never spat at him, never had given him a single dirty glance; there was no malice in her. In fact, though Leo thought that perhaps he was deluding himself, she seemed to actually enjoy his company. Well, if that was the case, then the feeling was mutual. He couldn't, nor dared presume, to speak for Terra, but he knew that _he_, despite the painful emotions he held when he even looked at her, took great happiness in this girl's presence. She was just so sad, so child-like in her loneliness. Leo had made her smile before; he would have liked her to smile all the time. 

But as his gaze slowly shifted away from Terra, Leo felt a great shout of happiness well up within his chest; he could have turned a somersault, he was so elated.

Standing behind Locke and Terra were strange creatures that simply radiated magic; even such an un-magical man like Leo could feel the awesome potency of these beings. Espers! They had been found!

"Locke! Terra! You found them! And you've told them of our desire for peace!" Leo exclaimed the obvious in a slightly wavering voice, a smile breaking out from one ear to the other on his face as he quickly moved forward.

As he approached the largest Esper, obviously the leader of the strange creatures, Leo licked his dry lips and ran a finger through his close-cropped blonde hair. Charismatic man he was, he didn't know exactly how one dealt politically with an Esper. Quickly, he decided simply to throw away all formality and simply be frank and friendly with the Espers; that approach seemed the best option he had.

"I am General Leo of the Imperial Army," Leo bowed from the waist to the Esper. "May I ask your name, please?"

"I am called Yura," the Esper rumbled in a voice that made Leo shiver despite its apparent warmth. The giant beast-man inclined its head slowly and continued, "We have done something inexcusable to your people...this is probably not the time or place to ask your forgiveness, but these humans said you would be disposed to listen." Leo couldn't help but smile at Locke and Terra; it was then he saw two people he had never seen before: an old man and a young girl, both looking at each other with equally sour expressions on their faces. Leo made a mental note to ask about them later.

"Don't apologize," Leo continued after the Esper had spoken. "It is we who must ask forgiveness of you! We have done you wrong, and the Emperor recognizes that. How close we came to re-enacting the War of the Magi!"

"We must put all of this behind us," the Esper responded in what sounded like a happy tone.

"I shall send for the Emperor at once! Everything shall be worked out. You will see," Leo concluded happily, bowing again to Yura. Nothing could be done without the Emperor's consent, of course, but there was no doubt in Leo's mind that everything would turn out right, for once.

"Well! I believe our job is finally over! I, for one, could use some peace and quiet," Leo heard Locke exclaim; he turned around to watch the 'treasure hunter' move towards Celes, who was trying to affect a demure expression but was not doing a good job of it.

"Let's return to Vector," Celes told the thief, smiling up at him with an expression Leo had never seen the MagiTek Knight use before. Still, Leo smiled through his incredulity; Celes had just blurted that statement out, not even trying to lower her voice in the least. She had always been outspoken.

"Grandpa, I'm too hot!" the young girl exclaimed, fanning herself outrageously and making a face.

"Kids!" the old man harumphed, throwing his hands up in disgust. Leo began to laugh harder than he had laughed in his entire life; the expression on Locke and Celes's faces was too much to just simply smile at.

A light, breathy laugh sounded in Leo's ear; even as he chortled, he glanced down and nearly ceased laughing. Terra was standing right beside him, her hand gently placed on his forearm, her face bright. Leo's face lightened up even more; he had never heard Terra laugh before. And it was a beautiful sound, her laughter. Leo smiled and tentatively placed his free hand over hers; the girl beamed up at him with green eyes that lost all trace of sadness. She stepped up onto her tip-toes--Leo was a tall man-- and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Well done, you!" she whispered in his ear, squeezing his forearm.

Leo beamed up at the sky, the echoes of laughter ringing throughout the village. However, after a few minutes, the laughter did not stop.

Leo felt his stomach clench; he recognized that mad, whooping laughter anywhere. He whirled around in the direction of the laughter, and he saw what he had dreaded.

Kefka barged into the village, his clothes a colorful panoply of tackiness as usual, with three troopers on a special type of MagiTek armor that Leo had never encountered before filing in behind him.

"Wee...hee hee HEE! How about a little MagiTek mayhem?!" the clownish man screeched, his burning eyes darting about feverishly, his painted mouth curled up into a hideous grin. He flicked his hand; one of the troopers drove his machine forward and shot a short blast of energy that sent the other Imperial troopers flying. Another gesture, and then the trooper shot out another blast. Leo crumpled to his knees as the others did; he fought vainly to remain conscious, and soon he succumbed to the darkness.

*********

Warriors like Leo are difficult to keep down; they don't stay unconscious for very long. And Leo proved himself to be every inch the warrior he was; he hadn't been on the ground for five minutes before he managed to lurch to his feet again. 

The acrid smell of burning wood filled his nostrils; Leo then saw the flames spreading among the houses of the little hamlet. 

Confusion filled Leo's spinning head; wouldn't the Espers, with all their great powers, have been able to stop the troopers? When it came to pure magic against the more artificial MagiTek, there was no contest.

Leo lurched forward, trying to focus his eyes on the scene of horror around him. He saw his friends all lying on the ground, unconscious but not dead. He then saw a single Esper, trying to flee from the town. Suddenly, a bright flash of light erupted from seemingly nowhere, forcing Leo to cover his eyes. When he could see again, he cried out; the Esper had been reduced to a small, smooth stone: Magicite. The Esper had been killed.

The smooth stone suddenly began to levitate in the air, being drawn by some mystical force; Leo darted his eyes from the Magicite to the source of the power, and saw Kefka.

Kefka had killed all of the Espers.

"KEFKA!!" Leo roared, stepping forth. "What do you think you're DOING?!!"

"Gna-haw-haw!" Kefka tittered, sneering at him. "I'm to bring these Espers to His Excellency! It's a Magicite motherlode! Oh, I've got goosebumps!"

"No! Kefka, your behavior is dishonorable! I can't allow this!" Leo thundered, unsheathing his sword as he rushed at the hysterical man.

A red miasma formed in front of Leo's eyes as he charged and slashed at Kefka; he poured all of his rage at being betrayed and all of his hatred for the man into his attacks. He slashed and ripped and sliced without even knowing it.

Finally, when he was simply to exhausted to attack any longer, Leo stepped back, panting heavily, only to find to his utter dismay that there was nothing before him. Kefka, or what should have been left of him, was not there, not even a trace.

"Ah...Leo...always the consummate soldier..." a voice whispered in Leo's ear, making the blood rush to his face once more.

"Kefka, where are you! Show yourself!" Leo demanded, his lips curled back in a fierce snarl.

"EMPEROR GESTAHL...I need you here..." Kefka's voice trailed off into the distance. Leo whipped his head around, searching desperately for the traitor.

Instead of Kefka, Leo's eyes found another personage: the Emperor himself!

Reflexively, Leo immediately dropped to one knee before his liege.

"My Liege...how...?" Leo stammered, but the regal, stern old man before him raised his hand for silence.

"I am sorry that I deceived even you, Leo. My purpose has been to collect Magicite, and grow powerful...Please understand me...."

"That's right! We what need to do now is collect Magicite!" Kefka's voice sang out; Leo paid it no heed.

"But, my Liege! What have I been fighting for?" Leo gasped, nearly staggering back; his face was that of someone who has been utterly poleaxed.

"Leo...I think you should take a long snooze...VERY long!" the Emperor grinned down at his general; suddenly, the elderly man simply vanished into thin air.

This time, Leo did stagger back, nearly falling over in his shock as Kefka appeared once again.

"So, how'd you like my Gestahl? I should have been on the stage! And did you think you were harming me? That was simply my shadow! Well, General..." the clownish fiend laughed, glaring down at the still-kneeling Leo.

Leo made to raise himself up, but Kefka sent him rolling to the ground with a vicious, swift kick to the chest that knocked the breath out of him. Leo coughed up a small amount of bloody phlegm, his mind barely even registering pain through its confusion and rage.

"You're such a goody-two-shoes!" Kefka accused, looming over the fallen general and staring down his nose at him.

"Shut UP, Kefka! I oughta..." Leo growled, baring his teeth as he glared up at the madman standing over him.

Leo received another kick, this time in the face; a small crimson stream cascaded down his right cheek.

"What? A threat? You're such a violent little brute!" Kefka's strident voice called down. "I hate to tell your 'Liege' that I had to exterminate a traitor!"

Leo felt his chest turn to ice as he closed his eyes tightly. Visions flashed across the blackness, mocking him with their remoteness.

He had been deceived and used; the sickening truth finally sunk into Leo's rational mind. He had killed men, destroyed cities and dreams...all for nothing but lies, lies! His heart shrieked out in pain. He had sold his loyalties and soul for the Empire, only to have it ripped apart and trampled. He had been used for falseness; his _whole life_ had been nothing but a deception.

Leo's eyes opened and flickered around the village as these thoughts rushed through his head; he viewed the destruction and pain, and he saw the first true friends he had ever known lying on the ground, beaten.

And there was that poor, sad, pale girl with beautiful green eyes, broken and overwhelmed by the Empire's cruelty and lies. He wanted to call out to her, but he knew she could not hear him. He would miss her most of all.

This all took place in a matter of seconds. As Leo's eyes lay riveted on Terra's inert, unconscious form, he felt a stab of pain shoot up his neck.

Then the rest was silence.

_I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I was sad when Leo died! The poor guy! Sniff! He was so cool! And he was a nice guy! WHY?!!!_


End file.
